(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Luo Taiyou is retired from Yunnan Window and Door Engineering Company in Kunming City, Yunnan Province. On the afternoon of February 12, 2009, he was distributing truth-clarifying materials at the Luoshiwan wholesale market in the city's Xishan District, when someone reported him to the police. That evening his home was ransacked by the Xisan National Security Team. Luo Taiyou was arrested and detained at Xishan District Detention Center in Kunming City. He was secretly sentenced to five years of imprisonment and held at the First Prison of Yunnan Province.

His wife suffered a mental collapse after her home was ransacked, and now requires full-time care.

Luo Taiyou has been repeatedly detained over the last ten years, and his home has been ransacked. The following is the appeal statement he wrote in 2004:

Plea

People's Procuratorate of Guandu District:

My name is Luo Taiyou, male, and I am a retiree from Yunnan Province Window and Door Engineering Company. I began practicing Falun Gong in 1996. I acquired a new life from Dafa. My health improved and have not needed to go to the hospital or take medicine for the past eight years. I have saved the country so much in medical expenses!

Since [the persecution began on] July 20, 1999 I have been tremendously hurt by the persecution of Falun Gong, and my peaceful family has been destroyed.

1. In August 1999 my supervisor and officers from the Macun Police Station repeatedly tried to force me to quit practicing Falun Gong. My supervisor said, "If you keep practicing Falun Gong, you'll be removed from the payroll." This seriously violated my legal rights.

2. While I persisted in practicing Falun Gong, the security person at my workplace, Gu Haizhen, sent me to Guanshang Police Department in September 1999, and I was detained at Guanshang Detention Center with the charge of "disrupting social order." They showed no legal documents during the whole process, so I protested the illegal detention and deprivation of my freedom by holding a hunger strike. After five days on hunger strike, they were afraid I would die in the detention center, and had to release me.

3. On June 25, 2000, fellow Falun Gong practitioners and I went to practice and study the Fa at Xishan Forest Park in Kunming City, and I was arrested by the police. The police forced me to hold the book Zhuan Falun and then took pictures and video-taped me. I was later moved to the Macun Police Station and detained there for one day. I was released on June 26, then sent to the First Detention Center of Kunming City by the Guandu Police Department and detained there for one month and three days. A month after I was released, I was sent to Guanshang Detention Center by the Macun Police Station, and the next day I was sent to the Second Labor Camp of Yunnan Province and sentenced to three years of forced labor. It was stated in the forced labor sentence statement, "It's verified that Luo Taiyou has committed the following crimes: Luo Taiyou repeatedly participated in cult activities and refused to change after being educated, and he participated in illegal Falun Gong gathering at Xishan Forest Park in Kunming City on June 25, 2000. He was caught by the police." As a senior who is sixty years old, I acted by following Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Can you call this a bad deed? I can't accept this false accusation! Is there any justice in society?

4. On April 27, 2001, I was under home detention. I went to the Macun Police Station to apply for residency status and they required me to write a statement promising to give up Falun Gong before I was approved. I told them, "I can go without residency but I can't live without practicing Falun Gong!" Then, as a senior retiree who had worked for over forty years, I became a person without residency status.

I have the following requests:

1. Freedom of belief is a constitutional right for every citizen, and no one can interfere with my belief. The detention center infringed upon my personal freedom, and the labor camp sentenced me to forced labor using fabricated evidence. Thus I request the legal prosecution of responsible persons and compensation.

2. I request the restoration of my residency status as soon as possible.

3. This appeal will be sent to Yunnan Province Window and Door Engineering Company, security group at my workplace, Macun Police Station, Guanshang Police Department, Guanshang Detention Center, Guandu Police Department, the Second Detention Center of Kunming City, and the Second Forced Labor Camp of Yunnan Province.

Appellant: Luo Taiyou

June 26, 2004